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Wild and alive with its lush Highlands, mysterious Mayas, magnificent marine life, and spectacular shorelines, Belize is a destination for the adventurous. You can canoe in the waters of the Macal, trek in the dense forests, and walk among the remains of the great Mayan civilization or explore the second largest reef in the world.

If you’re the kind who loves to laze in peace and all this sounds like too much action, there are plenty of places tucked away in the highlands or located on the beach front where you all you need to do is eat, sleep and enjoy the untamed beauty of Belize.

Belize has 43 airports- 5 paved and 38 unpaved runways. Seems a lot for the tiny country!

Watch out for the Jabirus stork- largest flying bird in North America- at nature preserves throughout Belize. Belize boasts of nesting the largest population of Jabirus in Central America!

Historically Speaking

The earliest inhabitants of Belize are thought to be the Mayas, a fact confirmed by the Moho Caye that was a Maya fishing and transhipment port. The Spanish who arrived in the 16th century encountered a civilization of about 200,000 Mayas. Frustrated by the lack of natural resources and the Mayas stubbornness to adopt Christianity, the Spanish did not settle in this area but ruled indirectly over this province; indeed their control was hardly felt in the area. The twist in the tale was the advent of a bunch of shipwrecked English sailors who took advantage of the refuge offered by the reefs off Belize to plunder and raid the Spanish treasure fleets. Buccaneers and pirates made Belize their home and stole huge quantities of precious mahogany and logwood to consolidate the temporary settlement at the mouth of the Belize River that later came to be called Belize town, into a permanent one.

In the 17th century, with the capture of Jamaica from Spain a number of British soldiers and their families arrived in Belize, adding to the population of the area. The 18th century saw the importation of a large number of slaves from other English colonies to log the forests, making Belize one of the main trading centres of mahogany and logwood. With the Battle of St. George’s Caye in 1798, the English settlers finally won control over Belize from the Spanish with the help of the British naval forces. Officially Belize was declared an English colony in 1871.

The depression of 1930’s coupled with the inadequate efforts of the English government to cope with the devastation caused by the terrible hurricane of 1931 and again in 1961, that razed most of the city to the ground led to a campaign for independence by the Belize people. The People’s Unity Party that emerged in the 1950’s paved the road for independence and Belize achieved internal self-government in 1964 and total independence was achieved in 1981 at which time British Honduras became Belize and joined the Commonwealth as a sovereign state.

Habitat

A tiny country, Belize is located in the Southeast of the Mexican Yucatan peninsula atop the limestone shelf that stretches into Guatemala. The topography changes dramatically as it slopes from Guatemala in the West with craggy mountains, to the Caribbean in the East, where numerous lagoons characterize the coast. Barring the low mountains in the West (Victoria’s Peak, highest elevation point on the Island is at a height of 1,160m), most of the landscape is tropical lowland and swampy plains. The Cayo district has a number of intricate cave systems formed by the erosion of the limestone cover. The geographical wonders extend into the sea – the second largest barrier reef of the world is located just 30 km off the coast of Belize.

The verdant terrain is enveloped in dense hardwood jungles, pine ridges, savannahs as well as farmlands. The natural geographical panorama, dense forest as well as the swampy coast, is home to a variety of wildlife like the jaguar, puma, ocelot, armadillo and tapir. Colourful birds such as the Keel billed toucan, macaws, parrots, heron and snowy egret dot the sky.